


Seared Tuna

by althus



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015), ダンジョン飯 | Dungeon Meshi | Delicious in Dungeon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 23:08:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14342901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/althus/pseuds/althus
Summary: Dungeon Crawling AU: Lena earns a living resurrecting dead adventurers. Veronica has a job offer. Alex brings down monsters with her crossbow. Kara is Kara.A canon fusion with the setting of Delicious in Dungeon (no prior knowledge needed to enjoy this story).Rated T for Violence





	Seared Tuna

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to my beta, AerinAced, for looking this story over with eyes canon blind to Delicious in Dungeon and helping me to clarify plot points.

A thousand years ago, a lunatic magician dragged a castle and the surrounding town underground. No one alive today knew if there was a method to his insanity, and the spirits that wandered the sunken kingdom were more interested in possessing warm bodies than speaking with them about their experiences. Generations of unaware elves, dwarves, and humans resettled on the island surface carving out a fishing village life until over a decade ago a crumbling of the catacomb walls revealed the upper levels of the lost country and the promise of hidden treasures.

Since then the entire settlement’s economy had pivoted towards catering to adventurers with dreams of overcoming the monsters and traps within the dungeon to find that cache of treasure that would fund their early retirement. Similar to a gold rush, however, most adventurers only extracted enough in value for a few good meals on the surface before they needed to pay for fresh supplies for another expedition. Ten years of effort had cleared out the low hanging treasures from the first three levels without reducing the monster count, which pushed the adventuring community deeper below.

On the fourth level, leaking aquifers had flooded a section of the ancient town beneath a lake sparing only the rooftops of the tallest buildings, the defensive ramparts, and a few towers rising up from the water's surface which led to the upper floors. It was here that Lena sat on a stone wall dangling her legs above silhouettes patrolling the murky water. Judging by their humanoid size, Lena inferred the shapes to be fishmen. Of similar proportions, mermaids could also be found on this floor of the dungeon, but they lounged around ensnaring victims which passed within range of their songs rather than actively hunting. Compared to the appearance of a bare breasted maiden, fishmen tilted more piscine with bulbous eyes and gaping mouths ringed with tiny, sharp teeth. They rocketed through the water with their tail fins and ripped up their prey with tridents gripped in their sinewy arms.

As if on cue, the shadows submerged out of sight leaving behind only a few air bubbles as an adventuring party's chattering announced their arrival from the floor above. Newcomers to the water-logged town blended a self-destructive overconfidence from surviving the upper levels with a lack of discipline from an anticipation that the big payday was just over the horizon. Lena almost felt bad for their inevitable demise if she hadn't staked her livelihood on it. She unwrapped a package of ration bars; the baked concoction of oats, honey, cashews, and raisins would provide a burst of calories for her upcoming spells, but the cloying sweetness had her reaching for the water canteen to rinse out the aftertaste.

The group of about five or six humans plus a halfling stood on a makeshift pier as the mage tapped her staff against their foreheads to cast the water walk spell. As they strode out onto the lake in a single file, Lena's eyes followed the ripples on the water's surface that circled around them. The fishmen burst out of the water thrusting their tridents at the nearest warm bodies. Lena could imagine the stench rolling off the scales and their gurgling imitations of war cries.

The water walk spell worked against two of the leather breastplate wearing swordsmen as their bodies crunched down onto the water's surface as their blood spurted into the air. The mage hesitated to use any offensive spells at close range, so she chanted protection spells for the remaining fighters. Lena thought the mage would have been better off distancing herself from the fight while leaving those in armor to form a battle line; staying put she had left herself in range of the fishmen's attention.

Lena brushed off the crumbs from her hands and picked up her own staff. More corpses produced higher rewards but reviving mangled bodies had a lower chance of success. She jogged down the staircase built against the side of the stone wall until her feet made contact with the water. She strode out onto the lake and flung a fireball into the heart of the fishmen group. Those closest to the flames flapped their gills in surprise. The rest turned their dead fish eyes towards the new threat. Lena smirked and then sprinted back towards her perch on the stone wall.

The fishmen dove beneath the water in chase. Lena took the steps two at a time in her boots, and as she turned around at the top of the rampart the monsters had pulled themselves out of the water. They propped their bodies on the staircase with their fishtails and slithered after Lena with a speed that sent a rush of adrenaline to her heart. Like the old cliché of shooting fish in a barrel, however, she detonated another fireball at near point-blank range. She instinctively shut her eyes as a wall of heat billowed past her face followed by a shower of fish guts and the smell of charred stone.

Wrinkling her nose as she picked her way through the viscera slicked steps, Lena strolled towards the half-dead party. The survivors thanked her for the assistance and were detailing out their life story as she tried to concentrate on the incantation for revival. The body before her coughed back to life as blood seeped back into the wounds and the skin knitted together. Any blood that had spilled into the water had been lost for good leaving the revived feeling anemic. Lena knew of other "corpse retrievers" who carried flasks of goat's blood as a substitute in the ritual, but she spent too much time on the lower levels for access to fresh stock. A few in her profession had attempted to pen goats in the overgrown forest of the dungeon's second level, but the animals were always being carried off by the giant bats or hunted by the basilisks.

By the fourth revival, Lena's stomach grumbled as her limbs wavered from mana exhaustion. The color drained from her face, and her skin felt clammy to the touch. Resisting the urge to lean on her staff while she caught her breath, she stuck out her hand. "That'll be 10 gold pieces per revival. Helping out with the fishmen was free, but I'm charging extra for my laundry costs," she said.

While the adventurers debated whether to turn back or actually explore the fourth level, she carried her payment off in the other direction for a different route back up to the third floor. Her coin purse welcomed opportunities for repeat business, but novice adventurers also had a knack for getting everyone around them killed so best to avoid going the same way. Every so often she peered into the waters below to check if anything was stalking her. After a good trek, Lena’s soles hit solid footing again, and she began climbing a spiral staircase within a tower while scarfing down another ration bar.

The castle proper of the former kingdom comprised the dungeon's third level, though Lena always thought it was more like a dream of a castle that had materialized and then grown cancerous over a millennium than a place people ever lived in. She mused the architects had hollowed out a mountain to find all the bricks required for the dozens of stacked levels and grand hallways, not to mention the secret passageways which could cut out hours of travel. Layers of dust covered some of the rooms as if she was the first adventurer to step through them, though the masonry lacked the fissures she would expect from such an old building. Lena paused for a water break while being on alert for the wails of the castle's former inhabitants. Not wanting to spend the night out in the open, Lena pressed onward.

Entrepreneurs of the criminal sort who couldn't return to the surface had re-purposed a servants' quarters into a combination trading post, tavern, and inn. Lena's stomach growled again in anticipation of a sit-down meal. She took a seat at a table in the corner with her back to the wall as she attempted shallow breaths in the smoke-filled room. A busty waitress brought over a brown looking plate of sausage and grilled onions. Lena tucked in with her knife and fork while thinking about how much she missed kale.

Only a few days' travel separated the third level from the island town directly above them, but a dungeon wouldn't be a dungeon if it could accommodate wagon trains full of supplies. Huge scorpions, walking mushrooms, and slimes posed a threat to greenhorns on the catacombs of the first level, but the adventurer economy had practically colonized the area with businesses and meeting areas. Anyone skilled enough to navigate the second level forest that grew around the highest towers of the castle and beyond, however, needed a decent wage to pass up adventuring to haul groceries for an inn keeper. Fresh greens took up too much space and spoiled too quickly for transportation to be economical. The restaurants that had sprouted on the surface provided a balanced diet to adventurers in between dungeons trips spent munching on smoked meats and hard cheeses. Those who couldn't return to the surface for one reason or another had other priorities besides nutritious meals.

Lena almost spat out a mouthful of after-dinner whiskey when the bouncer opened the door for Veronica Sinclair looking completely out of place and completely at ease in a slitted red dress and gold earrings. At least she had compromised on the ensemble with sensible leather boots. Veronica had inked her skin with a body spanning tattoo since graduation, but there was no mistaking Lena's former magic academy classmate.

Lena turned her eyes away, but Veronica had already left her bodyguard lackeys behind to saunter over. She pulled a mismatched wooden chair up to Lena's table and steepled her fingers together and stared at Lena with an infuriating smile on her red lips. Lena broke the silence asking, "Is there something I can help you with?"

Veronica barked in laughter. "The old Lena Luthor would have made the effort to her hide her insults under a mask of civility or at least a measure of wit. I'd heard rumors you had run off to this nowhere island after your brother’s scandal. Imagine my surprise when I arrived here for my own business and stumbled upon gossip about the prickly corpse retriever who braves the dungeon on her own. Adventurers band together for a reason."

"Is that concern I hear in your voice?" Lena replied as she crossed her arms. A headache began to throb between her eyes.

"I thought you could be a bitch at times, but I don't want to see you hurt or worse," Veronica said as she held a palm to her heart in mock indignation at Lena's sarcasm. "Do you remember when our class voted you most likely to succeed?"

"Voting for class whatever wasn't a thing that happened at the magic academy."

"I certainly thought the sentiment was true when your projects always got you a pat on the head from the teachers," Veronica said with a grin. "I'm sponsoring a dungeon crawling team on the island, and I understand what an academy trained magician is worth on the open market when they can pull their noses out of the library books. Partner with me for six months, and you'll have enough for passage off this rock to whatever corner of the world you think is far enough away from your problems."

Lena finished the last of her whiskey. "I'll have to decline if these are the types of establishments you're frequenting to seek out companions. I wish I could say it was nice seeing you again."

Veronica signaled for another round for her, but Lena brushed off the waitress. She stood up to close the tab at the bar with her former classmate following after her. Veronica rested her elbow on the counter as she leaned in close against the shell of Lena’s ear. "The black market knows me as Roulette and these are my type of people," she whispered nodding towards the room's brigands, smugglers, and exiles. "Our old teachers probably remember your name, but while you stayed up late studying to earn your grades, I was making memories with all of our classmates so that they would definitely remember me. Those friends of mine then went out into the world to make connections of their own. The ones who entered adventuring guilds turn to me when they need to offload ancient gold or monster organs that double as potion ingredients, which I then flip to the ones who fanned out to court magician posts across the continent.”

Lena turned to stare into smoky eyes as Veronica brushed her fingers across Lena’s forearm and let them linger. Lena could almost taste where Veronica had applied the floral scented perfume to her pulse point. The black-market trader continued in a low voice, “After years of hustling, I’ve arrived to where I can think of my scavenging business, however profitable, as just a means to pay the bills while I hunt something grander. You must be curious about what makes death so impermanent in this particular dungeon. I stopped by the local guild's resurrection center on the first floor. They've got skeletons stashed away which still have a shot at being brought back with the right talent. There's also the hearsay that the lunatic magician still roams the dungeon and that whoever defeats him, inherits it all. One way or another, help me uncover how the kingdom is designed so that the dead don't stay dead, and you'll be back to sipping champagne in your own mansion instead of shilling your talents to no-name adventurers to earn enough to eat."

Lena shifted her arm to break contact with Veronica’s touch. "Promises of wealth and power on the continent don’t interest me anymore." She traveled alone in the dungeon, but her talent tied her to the community and kept it persevering against the dungeon's monsters and traps. The nobles and merchants on the surface smiled to Lena's face while whispering behind her back about the unholiness of her magical powers or the dishonor of the Luthor name. Her ears were deaf to those comments when she was nestled on a tower windowsill gazing at the inundated remains of a thousand-year-old city with only herself for company.

Veronica shrugged as she paid for Lena's meal, as well as a night's stay at the inn and rations for a week. She said, "Keep my proposition in mind. If you truly can't get along with others, I can offer a standalone bounty for any deciphering of the lunatic magician’s runes. We all have our own battles, but you can't hide away forever." 

The next morning Lena ordered bacon with toast and splurged for a side order of dried berries. Veronica held court in the other corner of the tavern with her posse. She flicked glances at Lena but otherwise let her dine in peace. After breakfast, Lena looped a fresh bag of supplies around her shoulders and set off for her usual haunts on the fourth floor. She failed to encounter any clients in need of her services along the way, so had plenty of time to reflect on Veronica's offer.

She went through the motions of re-casting the water walk spell as she searched for a spot to eat a late lunch and watch out for adventurers. The remains of the city square winked in and out of view beneath Lena's feet. The replaying of Veronica's words distracted her from the initial notes of a melody in the air until the song had captured her heart like a chorus of angels. Casting about for the source, her eyes fell upon a woman who inspired her to propose marriage right that moment. Lena's legs carried her towards where the beauty was reclining against a crumbling section of the castle wall. Long tresses flowed down past pert breasts and alabaster skin that glistened after emerging from a playful dip in the water. Lena's chest fluttered with a warmth as if she had indulged in a nightcap before crawling under the covers, so she ignored the crossbow bolt that whizzed by her and clattered off the stone wall behind the woman.

Up close, she smelled like a bakery before the first customers have disturbed the pre-dawn quiet but after all the loaves have been laid out to cool. Supple fingers grasped Lena's hand and tossed aside her staff. The woman gave her a smile, which Lena returned without being able to articulate the lengths of her adoration. Hands closed around Lena's neck and sent a chill down her spine before they clasped tight and dragged her into the water.

The warmth in her chest snuffed itself out as Lena clawed at the iron grip. Her screams bubbled up in a stream into the face of the mermaid above her, but it didn't seem to mind. Its tail churned the lake's surface as it worked against the buoyancy of the water walk spell to keep Lena down.

The vice around Lena's neck dissipated as the mermaid turned about as if stung. Half conscious, Lena cast off her canvas supply bag and kicked to propel herself up, aided by the water walk spell. A pair of arms plunged down into the water and hauled her out the rest of the way. Lena collapsed against the rubble of the stone wall as she gasped for air. Her savior patted Lena on the back as she hacked out the fluid from her lungs.

"How are you feeling?" the other adventurer asked. She was armed with a crossbow slung across her chest with the tips of the bolts peeking out from a quiver carried on her back.

Lena crawled forward and shifted her body to rest against the rocks. "Like I was rescued from a drowning. Thank you," she managed to get out as she brushed the sopping wet hair from her eyes. The floating mermaid corpse started drifting away from the pair on the currents. A bolt stuck out between the shimmering scales of the creature's bottom half. Lena's eyes must have seen the tail at first sight, but her mind hadn't perceived its significance through the haze of the siren's song. A second bolt had lodged between the shoulder blades. It had pierced the heart judging by the amount of blood mixing into the water.

"You're lucky my sister has better hearing than a halfing," the other woman said to Lena as she pulled cotton out from her ears. "Kara heard the mermaid on the hunt, so I told her to stay back at camp with her hands clapped over her ears while I went off to investigate. You should head back with me to dry off at our fire. I'm Alex."

"Lena," she replied as she nodded and accepted Alex's hand in standing up. Water dribbled out as Lena wrung out her tunic between her fingers. Alex remained on guard a few feet away on the lake scanning the surroundings.

The lifeless mermaid's body jerked with a splash like a marionette on a string. Then something pulled it down from below. It didn't resurface. Lena's body froze in place as the bottom dropped out from her stomach. Alex squatted down low near the water's surface as Lena imagined jaws jumping out of the water toward her clearly insane companion's face. The other woman stretched out for Lena's discarded staff floating atop the water and tossed it back towards the magician. Lena caught the weapon in midair and stepped back onto the rubble to gain a few more feet of high ground. Alex stood up as she slotted another bolt into her crossbow.

"Maybe whatever ate the mermaid is already full," Lena suggested in a whisper. 

"Whatever can drag down an entire mermaid has a lot more room in its stomach," Alex replied. Lena thought of the krakens and sea serpents she had heard lurked on the level though had never witnessed them herself. "My sister and I are camped out at that building over there with the red roof tiles. Can you run?"

Lena's lungs were still hyperventilating from her brush with death but she voiced an affirmative. She rushed a protection spell, and they began dashing across the lake. The clapping of their steps against the water resounded in the open air. A shadow followed after their footfalls from below and then surged ahead. A sea serpent exploded out from the lake hissing with a maw just big enough to gulp each of them down whole and steal away any probability of revival. Water droplets rolled off its glassy eyes. Alex tucked into a roll as the roiling waves snatched her footing away from her. Lena flailed out a fireball that managed to graze the interlocked scales of its torso and send it diving back into the water.

Lena yanked Alex up by the hand to continue their race towards safety leaping over the crests formed in the sea serpent's wake. Lena aimed her staff in a rotation around them as she set off a ring of explosions that sent columns of water rising up into the air. The thundering of the spells rang in her ears as the spray rained down from overhead. The improvised wards seemed to hold the monster at bay, but Lena paused in her efforts as she pushed down the urge to vomit from the stitch in her side and the rapid usage of her mana reserves.

The creature breached the surface again during the reprieve and lunged towards the two women. Alex dropped down to one knee to aim a shot. The missile stuck into the snake's throat causing it to flinch off course in pain. As the underbelly exposed itself, Lena poured the last of her mana into a cone of fire that infused the air with the odor of scorched flesh. The spell drained the remaining strength from her legs.

The snake thrashed about before returning its gaze onto the prey. The creature bared its venomous fangs but stayed floating atop the water as it hesitated to strike again. Alex worked to reload her crossbow for one last potential shot as Lena doubted the serpent would give Alex the time to reload again after that. Lena wrapped her goosebumps covered arms around her chest as a chill invaded Lena’s extremities via her soaked clothes.

"It's about time you arrived," Alex announced. Snowflakes descended in front of Lena's eyes. A blonde adventurer in plate armor had appeared in the direction of the building they had been running towards. She carried a shield with an emblem painted in red and held a mace up in the air. Lena could see the condensation of the woman's breath as she chanted out a spell. A wintry gale blasted the surface of the lake, and Lena hugged herself closer for warmth. The sea serpent flicked out its tongue at the forming sheets of ice that were surrounding it. The beast then shivered and lurched away back into the depths. Understanding she was safe, Lena collapsed from exhaustion and didn't even bother keeping her eyes open. Arms picked her up and placed her over shoulders. Lena retracted from the contact with the frosty metal, but otherwise let herself drift off to sleep.

She awoke to the hiss and pop of oil from a frying pan. She was bundled in a sleeping bag in a fresh set of pajamas. Her clothes had been hung up to dry on a makeshift clothesline secured between two stone columns. Lena scooted upright and yawned. Alex retrieved a tin kettle warming by the campfire to pour out something wafting with steam into a canteen. Her sister remained crouching over the cast iron skillet with a spatula in hand flipping over golden disks that smelled divine to Lena's nose. "Dinner's almost ready," the cook announced with a smile on her lips. "Most of our party split off to explore another section of the level, so there's plenty to go around. They should be returning tomorrow morning, so you'll get a chance to meet them all then."

The barley tea that Alex offered soothed Lena's throat and warmed her bones. "Who else is in your group?" Lena asked.

Alex's sister perked up. "There's J'onn and M'gann who can shapeshift into all sorts of animals to detect and fight off monsters. Winn is super handy with traps and lock-picking. You couldn't find anyone more reliable than James and his shield."

"And she's my sister, Kara, our resident warrior mage, in case that wasn't obvious," Alex commented.

"Nice to meet you," Kara said as she waved at Lena. "Alex told me about what happened with the mermaid and then the sea serpent. What were you doing on your own? It's dangerous to travel without a group in the dungeon."

"So, I've heard," Lena answered with a chuckle. "I work as a corpse retriever, so I try not to show up until all the trouble has passed, but things don't always go as planned."

Kara hummed in concern for her new acquaintance. "Have you been on the island long? We've only made a few trips down and are looking for how to get to the floor below."

"About six months," Lena said as she grasped the canteen of tea with both hands to warm her fingers. "I mostly work on the fourth floor, but I've poked around the fifth and can show you the way. Below the lakebed, there's a much larger cavern that houses the majority of the town. The main enemies are orcs and their worgs."

“Good to know.” Kara removed the skillet from the fire and took the lid off an earthen pot to reveal fish fillets seared white on the outside, but pink hued within, and topped with sesame and black pepper. She placed the fillets alongside what she had been frying up. Lena padded across the stone floor closer to the crackling fire as she accepted a plate piled high with food. The voice in her head said she should be warier of accepting a meal from strangers, but most of her possessions had sunk to the bottom of the lake, and she hadn't eaten since the morning. Lena bit into one of the battered and fried disks. Her mouth watered at the tangy savoriness of fried green tomatoes. She fanned her tongue as they were still piping hot. Lena next tried one of the fish fillets. The salty skin crunched in her mouth while the meat melted like butter.

"I never expected to enjoy such a good meal down here in the dungeon. Did you seriously carry these tomatoes in your bags from the town market?" Lena asked.

"Not all the way from the surface," Kara answered as she glanced away. "We picked the 'tomatoes' from the man-eating plants on the second level forest. They're completely safe to eat though!"

Lena reached for the canteen of barley tea as she thumped her chest to prevent from choking while Alex snorted at the sight. "Please tell me the fillets are just regular fish from the lake," she said after a long draught.

"These are from fishmen,” Alex replied between chews. "We only carved up the more fish-like half if that makes you feel any better. The tea is just normal tea. Harvesting food from the dungeon means we waste less time returning to the surface to resupply and can devote more attention to treasure hunting. It’s easier on our budget too.”

“It’s not that different from hunting or fishing on the surface,” Kara said.

Lena looked down at the plate of fishmen fillets and man-eating plants. She wished she could say she had lost her appetite, but her watering mouth betrayed her as she bit into another forkful. "It's delicious."

"Thank you," Kara said as she beamed. "Alex and I talked it over, and we'll have to discuss it with everyone else, but would you like to join our party? J'onn, M'gann, and I fight with magic, but we could use someone who knows the dungeon and is experienced in healing and reviving people."

"More firepower wouldn't hurt either," Alex added in. "My sister thinks we have a chance to take down the lunatic magician and 'clear' the dungeon."

“You don’t have to decide now,” Kara rushed out. “Finish your food, feel free to come back for seconds, and we can revisit the topic in the morning."

Lena pushed the food around her plate with her fork. What was with people asking her to break out of her routine lately? She considered divination as mumbo-jumbo dressed up to look like real magic, but maybe this was a sign. "I do owe you for the meal and for saving my life. Let's give it a shot."

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Concrit and other comments are welcome. 
> 
> Please note this is a one-shot as Delicious in Dungeon is ongoing (the party just entered the sixth-floor sewers and dined on clams which had hidden in their pillows and fed on their nightmares), and I have no plans to write my own ending to the story.


End file.
